Word-building game



WORD-BUILDING GAME Filed Jan. 21, 1937 INVENTOR 4001s GRl/Dl/V I BY v ,5

A44 ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 10, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to word-building games wherein the letters of words are composed of playing pieces.

My invention resides in novel playing-pieces used for composing letters of the alphabet upon a playing board, and a novel correspondence of the color of a playing board with portions of the playing pieces.

An object of my invention is to provide a novel word-building game which is interesting and instructive, and which permits exercise of player skill.

Another object of my invention is to provide novel pieces, which may be used in various combinations to compose the letters of the alphabet and the numerals.

A further object of my invention is to reduce the component parts of all letters and numerals to conveniently uniform and interchangeable parts, thereby permitting interchangeable constructions of letters while at the same time facilitating selective manipulation in letter-building and word-building games.

A still further object of my invention is to provide novel dice used for selecting combinations of playing pieces to compose letters in a novel word-building game.

These and other objects of my invention will become apparent in the following description in connection with the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the novel playing'pieces.

Figure 2 illustrates the optical efiect resulting from placing said pieces upon the playing board.

Figure 3 illustrates several letters composed with the novel playing-pieces.

The letters of the alphabet as well as the numerals are composed of combinations of the novel semi-circular pieces l and l I illustrated in Figure 1. The diameter of the smaller piece ii is one-half the diameter of the larger piece if]. Pieces l9 and H may be made of wood, metal composition, cardboard or the like, and are uniformly colored.

A line 52 is marked upon one side it of piece Hi, adjacent to the diameter thereof. The width cf line l2 corresponds to the width of the lines which are to be made upon the letters in a manner to be hereinafter described. The opposite surface H of piece ll] has a semi-circular marking 55 along the circular border of piece It). The markings I2 and E5 on semi-circular piece H] are preferably colored to contrast with the color of the background or surfaces 83 and M. For example, if a blue background is used for the piece Hi, lines 12 and i5 are preferably colored yellow.

The small seini-circular pieces: H are marked and colored in a manner similar to pieces l0. On e black side M has a straight white line H marked adjacent the diameter. The other side 28 has the circular marking l9 thereon, as illustrated in Figure 1. In my preferred embodiment, the thickness of the lines l2, I5, I! and 59 are made equal, and correspond to the thickness of the lines composing the letters of the game.

A plurality of semi-circular pieces 10 and II are used to play the word-building game. The surface of the board upon which the game is played is colored the same as the surfaces of the pieces IE! and II, namely black, in my preferred form. Figure 2 illustrates a corner of the playboard 20. When pieces l9 and H are placed upon board 20, only the contrastingly colored lines I2, I 5, l1 and I9 will be readily visible. The black surfaces or background portions of pieces Ill and II Will be substantially invisible, being non-distinguishable from the similarly colored.

play-board 28. Accordingly, the black outlines 2l-22 and 23-44 of pieces it and H, indicated in dotted line, will be substantially invisible to the players. Contrasting White lines l2, I5, I? and I9 are clearly set out against the black background of board 20.

A plurality of the pieces I0 and H are used to play the Word-building game according to my present invention. The letters of the alphabet are composed of combinations of pieces I0 and II, For example, letter A is composed with two large pieces 25 and 26 and one small piece 21 as illustrated in Figure 3, the straight line markings of the members 25, 26 and 2! being used. The letter B is composed by using the straight line of one large piece 28, and the curved lines of two small pieces 29 and 30. Letter C is the curved marking of one large member 3|. D is composed of one straight and one curved marking respectively of two large pieces 32 and 33. All the letters of the alphabet together with the numerals may be readily composed with the novel pieces I0 and H according to the following table:

Complete alphabet As indicated in the chart, different alternative letters of the alphabet, or numerals may be composed from a selected group or combination of pieces.

Although I have described a preferred embodiment of the novel playing pieces which are used in composing the individual letters for the wordbuilding game, it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be readily devised which fall within the spirit and scope of my present invention.

I claim:

A game piece for use in letter building comprising a semi-circular element having opposed plane surfaces: one of said surfaces bearing a straight line marking of substantial width and of contrasting color to said element along its chord forming edge; the other of its surfaces bearing a curved marking of substantial width and of contrasting color to said element along its arcuate edge.

LOUIS GRUDDI. 

